Book Review: The Pilot's Wife By Anita Shreve

I'm sure when something bad happened to us, we all had asked the same question, "Why does this have to happen to me, why?" As if by finding the answer, we could somehow undo it. I feel that the author of this book had written a very heart gripping story by invoking a feeling that we can all share with her story's heorine Kathryn.

It was through the grief and the feeling of "unjust" that Kathryn had unknowingly launched an emotional journey of self-discovery, just to find out that she didn't really know her husband afterall. The book is really a page turner. I couldn't put it down. The writer's writing was powerful in that it was able to put me into Kathryn's shoes and made me feel I was somehow sucked into Kathryn's mind and was exploring and investigating along with her.

This is very unlike all the other shallow novels I read before. This one is deep and this one has very clever plots and beautiful writing. This is a book that will always remind you that people's lives are not really what we see on the surface, so don't beat yourself up by comparing. The big question raised by this book is "How well can we ever really know another person?" This is such a good point and this is what makes me wonder. I feel that if I really dig deep, I'm afraid I will be shocked by my own discovery. Very often, we are just too busy, too overwhelmed with meeting life's demand that we become too oblivious to really see who our friends, our co-workers, or even our family are....

I also like this book because it used real beautiful backdrops instead of fictional ones, and it introduced me to places that I hadn't known before... like the Isles of Shoals:

The story also introduced me to Malin Head, Ireland, which I also never heard of:

When the book said,

"The building was white and smooth and clean. She saw the sign above the door: Malin Hotel.

It was several minutes before her eyes adjusted enough so that she could make out the scuffed mahogany of the traditional bar. She noted the scarlet drapes, the stools with beige vinyl tops, the dreariness of the room alleviated only somewhat by a fire at one end…."

I was curious about this hotel and I found that it was actually a pretty quaint and nice hotel like Kathryn found it to be. It's a place that I would want to stay in my future vacation (click on the picture below to see the slide show.. really nice inside!!):

My favorite quote from the book is "To be relieved of love, is to give up a terrible burden." I can't agree more that loving someone can give us lots of burden.

Overall this book is a great supsense and a very emotional provoking read.

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